Who do you WANT the Kings to draft if we stay at 4?

[Spike]

Here's how I see things:

1. Ivey and Murray are in a similar tier.

2. The hole at 4 is bigger than the hole at 2 for Sacramento. DDV is a starting quality 2, meanwhile, at the 4? There's a gaping hole.

3. Brown wants a defensive identity in Sacramento, which means, based on what we've seen in GS, you're going to want switchable players all around, and workmanlike attitudes.

4. Preferred or not, the mandate from management is the playoffs. We don't have the luxury to deal with growing pains, and if the kid isn't NBA ready, he's not getting the keys to the kingdom in order to figure it out.

5. Barnes, Giddey, Kuminga, Wagner. Most of us expected at least one of them to be available in the draft. None of them were. Wings are drafted at a premium, and if we were at 7, we'd have no shot at a starter at the position. At 4, we can grab the best one not named Smith, or, if things break in a plausibly strange way, we can end up with Smith.

Thus, the logical pick is Murray. Unless Holmgren falls, and you cross your fingers and hope he's healthy for at least the Fox/Sabonis window.

 

[LPKingsFan]

I am not saying Monte is a draft god because I don't think he is, but there is a reason mock experts are on youtube or ESPN if they hit big time and NBA GMs are actually getting paid to do personnel evaluations. I think our own @bajaden puts in more time watching college ball than a lot of people with popular youtube channels and even some of the semi-pros working radio and light tv, and I am pretty sure he thinks Murray is the right pick for us, I'll quote his mock of us picking Murray and if he deems fit to join/correct me I'll gladly be wrong. I hope some day soon I can enjoy the good life of all the college hoops and cervezas I can handle.

Not for nothing, but the one ESPN analyst who had Murray 3 (or said he was close) got hired by a team…

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Not for nothing, but the one ESPN analyst who had Murray 3 (or said he was close) got hired by a team…

I know different sport but Mel Kiper who is the NFL draft "expert" is a complete idiot.

 

[NiNetNiNe]

They also don't have anything locked in financially. The two glaring holes on the roster are at SG and PF. But which is more glaring? Donte wants to get paid and be a starter. This is someone who has started less than half of his games and is the definition of inconsistent. Do you really pay him? That's a major risk IMO. TD has shown his potential at times but he's on an ender. Trey Lyles isn't a great fit next to Domas but he did look pretty good as a start last season. Around 13 and 7 in 26 mpg. I think both spots are a wash TBH.

Its funny that he started for a championship team, and he comes here and suddenly isnt good enough to be our starter.

He didn't play much his rookie year and had Wes Mathews in front of him. The year he finally becomes a starter, his third year, he has a good season. He only misses six games, and then has a major injury in the first series of the playoffs. He comes back from a major injury and has been inconsistent, but started to get back into form towards the end of the season.

This is a guy Monte has been trying to get since he's been here. I have no doubt he will pay him. He is an elite defender, who can shoot the three.

In addition to him, we also have Terence Davis, and Justin Holiday all sharing the same spot.

Meanwhile, our only PF is a guy who is working on his 5th team in the NBA. Granted, he wasn't terrible for us. But now you have the chance to draft a player that was the only scoring threat on his team. He had one of the highest usage rates while only committing 1 turnover a game. Which is absolutely insane considering he was consistently double and triple teamed. He put him 23.5 points a game while having a true shooting percentage of 64%. And on top of that he played good defense, he averaged 1.3 steals and 2 blocks a game.

It blows my mind that people are so down on Murray and see him as lesser than Ivey. Murray had one of the most impressive statistical seasons you will see from a college player and he the lesser talent? Why? Because he will be 21 on draft night? You know who else was? Steph, Klay, Draymond. People put too much stock into age. Was Murray as old as some seniors? Sure, but he was also the most statistically dominate player in college so who cares.

 

[SacTownKid]

Its funny that he started for a championship team, and he comes here and suddenly isnt good enough to be our starter.

He didn't play much his rookie year and had Wes Mathews in front of him. The year he finally becomes a starter, his third year, he has a good season. He only misses six games, and then has a major injury in the first series of the playoffs. He comes back from a major injury and has been inconsistent, but started to get back into form towards the end of the season.

This is a guy Monte has been trying to get since he's been here. I have no doubt he will pay him. He is an elite defender, who can shoot the three.

In addition to him, we also have Terence Davis, and Justin Holiday all sharing the same spot.

Meanwhile, our only PF is a guy who is working on his 5th team in the NBA. Granted, he wasn't terrible for us. But now you have the chance to draft a player that was the only scoring threat on his team. He had one of the highest usage rates while only committing 1 turnover a game. Which is absolutely insane considering he was consistently double and triple teamed. He put him 23.5 points a game while having a true shooting percentage of 64%. And on top of that he played good defense, he averaged 1.3 steals and 2 blocks a game.

It blows my mind that people are so down on Murray and see him as lesser than Ivey. Murray had one of the most impressive statistical seasons you will see from a college player and he the lesser talent? Why? Because he will be 21 on draft night? You know who else was? Steph, Klay, Draymond. People put too much stock into age. Was Murray as old as some seniors? Sure, but he was also the most statistically dominate player in college so who cares.

Well, think about it, if he were that important would they have traded him? Let alone for the zombie Ibaka who didn't even hardly play in the playoffs down the stretch? Yeah, put Giannis on this team and all of a sudden role playing SG's are a thing. Fox is this teams Giannis so it's a totally different make altogether. And BTW, the Bucks won a ring with every single meaningful game in the playoffs having the word "INACTIVE" next to Donte's name.

 

[Ozymandias]

good post @NiNetNiNe ^^^

Murray had a super late growth spurt too! The Murray twins had ONE D1 scholarship offer from Western Illinois... Thats it.. Not even Iowa/ McCaffery, who was well aware of them offered( and their father even played for Iowa, sort of like the story of Va Tech Dell Curry's alma matter ESPN's Seth Greenberg was the coach at the time, not offering Steph)... and then they did a year of prep school and destroyed competition and had over 40 offers n went back to Iowa...

So its not even like they were languishing around getting old... More of a matter of all growth trajectories are not the same plus they were stuck behind Joe Weiskamp who got drafted not long ago...

 

[ESP47]

Its funny that he started for a championship team, and he comes here and suddenly isnt good enough to be our starter.

He didn't play much his rookie year and had Wes Mathews in front of him. The year he finally becomes a starter, his third year, he has a good season. He only misses six games, and then has a major injury in the first series of the playoffs. He comes back from a major injury and has been inconsistent, but started to get back into form towards the end of the season.

This is a guy Monte has been trying to get since he's been here. I have no doubt he will pay him. He is an elite defender, who can shoot the three.

In addition to him, we also have Terence Davis, and Justin Holiday all sharing the same spot.

Meanwhile, our only PF is a guy who is working on his 5th team in the NBA. Granted, he wasn't terrible for us. But now you have the chance to draft a player that was the only scoring threat on his team. He had one of the highest usage rates while only committing 1 turnover a game. Which is absolutely insane considering he was consistently double and triple teamed. He put him 23.5 points a game while having a true shooting percentage of 64%. And on top of that he played good defense, he averaged 1.3 steals and 2 blocks a game.

It blows my mind that people are so down on Murray and see him as lesser than Ivey. Murray had one of the most impressive statistical seasons you will see from a college player and he the lesser talent? Why? Because he will be 21 on draft night? You know who else was? Steph, Klay, Draymond. People put too much stock into age. Was Murray as old as some seniors? Sure, but he was also the most statistically dominate player in college so who cares.

Stats aren't everything.

Denzel Valentine - 19.2ppg, 7.5rpg, 7.8apg in his last year at college. Shot 44% from 3. Would have people thinking he was the next Luka.

Sinarius Thornwell - 21.4ppg, 7.1rpg

Frank Mason 20.1ppg, 5.2apg


Sometimes counting stats need to be taken with a grain of salt in the NCAA. They're one component of scouting but they don't always translate to the NBA. If you go look back at the top 10 scorers during each college season, the vast majority of them don't even wind up being NBA players. Usually 1, maybe 2 guys in the top 10 will wind up being any good in the NBA.

Click to show the top 10 in points per game and then click the left and right arrows at the top and you wont find many NBA players from year to year that are in the top 10 in college.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/seasons/2014-leaders.html

For reference, I like Murray but I don't think he's going to be able to put up the same types of lofty numbers in the NBA.

 

[midtowner]

I wanted Ivey, but I really like Murray. I think he has more upside than the narrative.
Hopefully the team starts moving the ball around and take advantage of a guy that knows where to be.